LIBRARY AND INFORMATION RESEARCH GROUP

STUDY OF ABSTRACTING WINS LIRG POSTGRADUATE PRIZE

Amanda Tinker from Loughborough University has won the 1998 LIRG
Postgraduate Prize for her dissertation, Automatic abstracting: a review
and an empirical evaluation.  Amanda's study looked at the adequacy and
effectiveness of human-produced and machine-produced abstracts.   The
study stood out for its innovative methodology and the careful  and
considered way in which it was conducted.  A report of Amanda's work
will appear in a forthcoming issue of Group's newsletter Library &
Information Research News and the prize will be awarded at the Groups'
AGM on the 17th. March next year.

The quality of the nominations received was excellent and Amanda won
against  intense competition from other entries.  The judging panel
decided that five dissertations should be highly commended:

Pete Abel (Manchester Metropolitan University) Information on the
Military, Security, Police (MSP) trade: an evaluation of commercial and
public domain information sources.

Peter Dalton  (University of Central England)  Information audit:  a
critical analysis of audit procedures and some considerations of its
place in information service chains.

Thea Farley  (University of Wales, Department of Information & Library
Studies)  People and change:  the management of change in academic
libraries in the 1990s.

Jane Jones (Leeds Metropolitan University) Promoting sleep: information
on sleep and sleep disorders for general practitioners.

Tracey Mellor (University of Northumbria)  Examination of the
information needs of small and medium sized enterprises amd information
provision in Tyneside.

Those who were highly commended will receive a certificate and a year's
free membership of LIRG.


The Library & Information Research Group (LIRG) established its student
prizes in 1993 to recognise the contribution of student projects to
library and information research and to encourage wider dissemination of
the findings of exceptional theses and dissertations. One prize of £250
is awarded each year for an undergraduate student project and one for a
postgraduate student project.  Schools/Departments of Library and
Information Studies nominate their best projects in each category and a
judging panel made up of representatives of the Library & Information
Research Group evaluate the entries and choose the winners.  The closing
date for nominations for the LIRG Postgraduate Prize is 28th. February
1999.

Further information: Philip Payne, Chair, Library & Information Research
Group, Leeds Metropolitan University, Calverley Street, Leeds  LS1 3HE
(Telephone: 0113 283 5966, Fax: 0113 283 3145, Email:  [log in to unmask]


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